Fight participants hurled racial slurs along with punches during a brawl behind the bleachers. And in a separate incident, a Rice Memorial High School student brought a sign to the game that characterized Burlington players as convicts and gang members.
The incidents were not connected, according to Burlington police. No charges are expected in the sign incident and the fight remains under investigation, Deputy Chief Shawn Burke told Seven Days Thursday.
Images of the sign have been shared widely on Snapchat and Facebook. Many parents and students saw it as a racist slap at the BHS team.
The Rice student carried the poster into the bleachers at Burlington’s Buck Hard Field. It started with the headline “BHS Football Record Book,” and then listed, roster-style: “-5 Convicts, -4 Fathers, -13 Super Seniors, –All Gang Members.”
A Rice school employee saw the sign and told the student to put it away. He complied, but not before other people snapped pictures, which then went viral on social media.
“It was deplorable. It was full of bias and racism and it was very hurtful,” said Kevin Garrison, an African American parent whose son, also named Kevin Garrison, is a junior on the BHS varsity team. The younger Garrison scored four touchdowns, helping propel the Seahorses to victory in Friday’s game.
Garrison learned about the sign from players who saw it online over the weekend. Garrison contacted Burlington Superintendent of Schools Yaw Obeng, Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger.
At a minimum, Rice should write a formal apology to the Burlington High School football team, Garrison said.
“I’m hoping we can learn from it and move on. But certainly something has to be done about it,” he said.
The student at Rice is being disciplined, according to Sister Laura Della Santa, principal of the South Burlington Roman Catholic high school, which has a long-standing sports rivalry with BHS.
The sign was unacceptable, inappropriate and unkind, she told Seven Days: “It’s not what we stand for or what the students stand for.”
The school also released a statement apologizing to the Burlington community.
Rice administrators plan to meet with Burlington school officials to forge a plan to foster education and a broader apology.
Della Santa declined to identify the student who held the sign, or describe exactly what discipline he faced.
Obeng, the Burlington schools superintendent, thanked all involved for “working to address this incident in a timely manner.”
“The Burlington Police Department acted quickly to identify the students involved, determine the origins of the online post and deploy a school resource officer to investigate the situation and calm tensions,” he said in a statement. “The chief of police has noted that the sign was ‘deplorable’ and ‘reeks of racism.’ The incident has not been deemed a hate crime.”
The statement went on to say that Obeng and Rice administrators are working to “bring together those involved in the incident in order to repair harm and restore relationships.”
Meanwhile, the police are investigating a separate and unrelated incident that also took place at the game that night. According to Burke, a fight broke out behind the bleachers between a white family and a group of middle school students, most of whom are black.
The two groups have had ongoing friction in their Old North End neighborhood which boiled over at the game, Burke said. Racial epithets were used during the fight, Burke said. Police were called but the brawl was over by the time they arrived.
No one was seriously injured. A teenage bystander who tried to break up the altercation was struck, as were other fight participants, according to Burke. Police are studying a shadowy video of the brawl to see if charges are warranted. So far, a 13-year-old middle school student has been referred to juvenile court, according to Burke.
The racial aspect is part of the investigation, he added.
“There certainly is a racial undertone to this in the sense that we have statements indicating that there were some racial epithets either used directly afterwards of the fight, or leading up to it,” Burke said.
The racial tensions come just weeks after the Burlington school board passed a resolution to work on the racial climate in city schools, prompted by three African American school district administrators complaining of discrimination and harassment on the job.
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People have become so sensitive to injustice that it’s working against them…
Look at Donald Trump’s popularity. It is a backlash to the hyper sensitivity described in this article. People feel repressed. They like to flirt with a good looking lady. But they’re told they can’t do that anymore. Everyone tells them to hush. There used to be ethnic joke books at the book store. It helped reduce tension. People would laugh at each other’s erhnic jokes and hurl another one.
This guy Trump comes along and doubles down on this repressed feeling, adds a little anger, and blows people’s minds. Seinfeld and Chris Rock won’t even go to college campuses anymore because people can’t take a joke. It’s all “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings”. Micro aggressions and white fragility… It’s gotten absurd. People have skins that are blistered by moonbeams.
Would love to have been a fly on the wall during that kids visit to the principals office.
I’ve had dealings with several recent Rice graduates. It most definitely IS what they stand for.
I agree that people should have the emotional hardiness to stand up to insults and certainly should not respond to words with physical violence. That some people will react with hypersensitivity, however, in no way excuses expressions of hatred and prejudice or immunizes those who verbally abuse others from the contempt they deserve. The student who made that sign decided to make his vicious nature public by displaying the sign in a public place. His name should be public, too, especially if his school administrators wishes to disassociate themselves with the attitudes expressed by that student.
The fact that this is in the news and not left to the schools and families to address confidentially, restoratively and as an educational moment illustrates what a pop-culture issue “race” is. It’s divisive and provocative – two things Trump and his minions eat up.
Where’s the news coverage over the injustices we all face and should come together on: 1000’s in fatalities in the US every year from unsafe workplaces, medical malpractice, toxic air, obesity, or the nasty sespool we call Lake Champlain?
Why do we let the media cultivate the hate?
Kids make mistakes. Reporting this story like this does a disservice to our community, which needs to multiply our efforts and come together. Black Lives Matter, labor, sustainability … Whatever you hang your hat on… We need to send a message to our representatives that we are united in order to make change. This is what the labor movement and the civil rights movement did in the 60’s, and it worked. If we choose this Donald Trump, Wrestlmania, shock-jock, style approach people get nastier!
I’m curious as to how much truth there was in the Rice student’s sign. Presumably few if any of the BHS team members are gang members. Are any convicts or fathers as the sign indicates? Was it wholly made up or is there a kernel of truth that has been greatly exaggerated?